Since the earliest days of enclosed motor vehicle travel there has been a concern as to the provision of windows that allowed the vehicle occupants to see out while also being moveable to an open position to provide for the ventilation of the vehicle. It is common knowledge that in the early days of motor vehicles, the vehicles were designed to have single panes of glass that could be moved from a closed to an open position. Even in the early days it was recognized that some form of auxiliary ventilation other than an open window was necessary to reduce the buffeting of the vehicle's occupants by air currents from an open window.
Typical of this effort is the ventilation for motor cars of H. Liebig U.S. Pat. No. 1,891,390 which consisted of a guide plate having a cover plate at the top and bottom and standing obliquely to the window, so that it acts similar to a wind screen against which the wind strikes and is deflected so that it cannot penetrate into the interior of the car, but exerts a suction effect sucking the foul air from the air.
A similar device to suck foul air from a vehicle, is set forth in the J. O. Smith U.S. Pat. No. 1,660,893, in which Smith provides a ventilator for closed cars which is adapted to be placed in a window opening between the upper edge of the sliding window and the top of the window frame. In the Smith patent it is indicated that when the car is in motion there will be a strong current of air over the rearwardly inclined louvers 13, which will create a suction through the openings 14 to draw air from the interior of the car.
Neither the Liebig patent nor the Smith patent just described entertains or suggests a means to introduce air currents into a vehicle by the means of a wind deflector that can also be positioned to establish wind deflection and the suction removal of air from within the vehicle, all of which features are present in the invention to be described hereinafter.
With the passage of time, it became apparent that wind deflectors or wind wings as they were sometimes called, should be included as an integral part of the vehicles front or rear windows. The patent to R. M. Bryce, U.S. Pat. No. 2,573,396 evidences in FIG. 1, just such a wind wing or vent window 15. The Bryce patent further concerns itself with the provision of a portable wind deflector 16 that may be secured in the rear portion of a window opening to prevent unwanted drafts from entering the rear of the vehicle and circulating through the remainder of the vehicle. The Bryce invention does not contemplate or suggest that the wind deflector 16 may be used to draw air currents into the vehicle interior in the manner which the invention to be described uniquely provides.
The desirability of drawing fresh air in a directed fashion into the rear compartment of a vehicle is shown by the H. B. Riggs U.S. Pat. No. 2,586,090, where an air deflector 20 is illustrated as positioned between a partially open window 18 and a window frame 16. The air deflector of Riggs cannot be employed to additionally provide air suction and air turbulence reduction to the vehicle interior, as will be evident in the invention to be described.
Automobiles of the current era have come full circle in respect of the provision of cars that have no vent windows at all. The advent of air-conditioning, which is nearly standard equipment on most cars, coupled with a desire to provide cars with sleeker and more aerodynamically smooth lines, have forced the removal of auxiliary vent windows.
However, the rising price of fuel and the reduced gasoline mileage experienced by cars with air-conditioning are leading more and more people to either not purchase air-conditioning for their cars, or to travel with the winddows open to gain the desired cooling. The presence of built-in air flow systems that provide a continuous flow of air through the vehicle are often found insufficient, especially when the entire vehicle has been parked in the sun and its body temperature elevated such that air drawn through the ducting in the body of the car arrives in the passenger compartment at a temperature that is greater than the ambient air surrounding the car.
Into this just described environment, the invention to be described provides a most novel and simple solution.